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WELCOME TO SEQUESTER WEEK. With four days until the across-the-board cuts begin taking effect, Democrats and Republicans are set to offer dueling plans for averting them. And the Washington blame game is only intensifying, with the White House blasting Republicans yesterday as it unveiled a fact sheet on the state-by-state impacts of the cuts (http://politi.co/X7gyV3).

“At the end of the day, it’s important to understand why the sequester is going into effect,” White House communications director Dan Pfeiffer told reporters on a conference call. “It’s going into effect because Republicans are choosing for it to go into effect.” Michael Steel, a spokesman for House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio), shot back: “Republicans in the House have voted — twice — to replace President Obama’s sequester with smarter spending cuts.”

CRUNCHIN’ THE NUMBERS — Sequestration would result in nearly 150,000 DoD civilian workers furloughed in D.C., Maryland and Virginia, according to the White House’s analysis. Juana Summers has more on what the administration’s numbers mean for defense, for Pros: http://politico.pro/WkTwYv

FOR DEFENSE WATCHERS, the week ahead is hugely consequential. First, Chuck Hagel is expected to be confirmed as Defense secretary. “I think [Hagel’s confirmation] will happen, barring some additional revelation concerning his comments about Israel and all those other unfortunate things he’s said in the past,” SASC Republican John McCain (R-Ariz.) said yesterday on CNN’s “State of the Union.”

Second, the military public-relations machine will have its last shot to convince members of Congress of the perils of sequestration before the cuts begin taking effect on Friday. Tomorrow, the service chiefs will appear before the House Appropriations Defense Subcommittee to once again warn of furloughs, grounded aircraft and ships stuck at port.

And the House Armed Services Committee has hearings lined up this week on the Quadrennial Defense Review, the war in Afghanistan and the industrial base, among other topics. Here’s the full schedule: http://1.usa.gov/YRO8fP

HAPPY MONDAY. The State Department edged out DoD last night for Best Picture, but never fear: The Pentagon-backed film “Battleship” has raked in more cash than “Argo” and “Zero Dark Thirty” combined. Send your thoughts on the Oscars, plus tips and feedback, to awright@politico.com, and follow us on Twitter @morningdefense, @abwrig and @POLITICOPro.

TRIVIA NIGHT: POLITICO Pro Trivia is back tomorrow at 6 p.m., featuring POLITICO Pro's Tony Romm and Juana Summers teeing up questions on all things policy, politics and D.C. RSVP with teams of four to eholman@politico.com.

HAGEL’S PROBLEMS JUST GETTING STARTED — The SecDef nominee will face a series of crises when (and if) he takes over at the Pentagon, report POLITICO’s Kate Brannen and Tim Mak. “Before he’s even had one week on the job, Hagel could lose more than $40 billion from his budget,” they write. More here: http://politi.co/X5wcBL

ASH CARTER IN CHARGE? With Defense Secretary Leon Panetta abroad last week and Hagel stuck in confirmation limbo, the deputy Defense secretary has become DoD’s leading voice on sequestration, appearing before Congress and on PBS and MSNBC. “Carter is serving in an acting capacity whether he acknowledges it or not, and Hagel could keep Carter as chief sequester advocate,” said Mackenzie Eaglen, a defense analyst at the conservative American Enterprise Institute.

TOP STORY: DEFENSE INDUSTRY HAS FEW FRIENDS ON THE HILL — On the homepage, POLITICO’s Darren Samuelsohn and Anna Palmer write that many of the industry’s longtime allies are now dead, retired or in jail. “Of the 30 largest House recipients of defense industry campaign donations since the 1990 election cycle, only 11 are still serving in Congress,” the pair write, citing a POLITICO analysis of data compiled by the Center for Responsive Politics. “It’s the same story in the Senate, where 14 of the top 30 recipients over the same time period still serve.”

In response, Northrop Grumman, Lockheed Martin, Boeing and other firms are scrambling to cultivate new defense hawks. “Are we missing people who understood our industry and understood our contribution to our national defense? Yeah, absolutely,” said Dan Stohr, a spokesman for the Aerospace Industries Association. Here’s the full story: http://bit.ly/XvosZr

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WAITING FOR ANSWERS ON F-35 GROUNDING — Pentagon officials said they expect more information this week on the suspension of flight operations for all three variants of the F-35 as a “precautionary measure” because of a crack discovered in an F-35 engine blade. The news couldn’t have come at a worse time for the world’s most expensive weapons program, given that critics are already calling for the program to be scaled back as DoD prepares to absorb billions of dollars in automatic spending cuts.

The big questions: How quickly will the engine problem be resolved? And will it lead to a revived debate over an alternate engine, which Congress killed in 2011 over cost concerns? “Until the nature of this crack has been determined, the integrity of the F-35 fleet cannot be assured and the potential exists for catastrophic failure,” according to Naval Air Systems Command, which said there will be an update on the situation by Friday.

TOP TALKER — NYT A1: “A new cold war, in cyberspace, tests U.S. ties to China,” by David E. Sanger: “In the next few months, American officials say, there will be many private warnings delivered by Washington to Chinese leaders, including Xi Jinping, who will soon assume China’s presidency. Both Tom Donilon, the national security adviser, and Mrs. Clinton’s successor, John Kerry, have trips to China in the offing. Those private conversations are expected to make a case that the sheer size and sophistication of the attacks over the past few years threaten to erode support for China among the country’s biggest allies in Washington, the American business community.” http://nyti.ms/13FP6yx

— CANDID CAMERA: MANDIANT CATCHES HACKERS IN THE ACT — The cybersecurity firm has released a video of what it says is a China-based hacker stealing files from computers in the United States. Watch it here: http://bit.ly/Zu2Qf9

U.S. NAVY VS. GEORGE WILL — The Navy responded yesterday to conservative columnist George Will, who wrote on Friday that the service’s decision to delay the deployment of the USS Truman was motivated by politics. “The Navy’s participation in the political campaign to pressure Congress into unraveling the sequester is crude, obvious and shameful, and it should earn the Navy’s budget especially skeptical scrutiny by Congress,” Will wrote.

In response, Rear Adm. John Kirby, Navy Chief of Information, said the Navy has little flexibility when it comes to sequestration. “Delaying Truman was never just about savings from a single deployment. It was about trying to preserve a longer term and still robust naval presence in the Middle East,” Kirby said in a statement to Morning D. “We don’t do things in the Navy to make a point. And we don’t do drama. We do things — and our military advice is designed — to protect and defend America.”

SPEED READ:

— Afghan President Hamid Karzai has ordered all U.S. special forces to leave the Wardack province in two weeks “because of allegations that Afghans working with them are torturing and abusing other Afghans,” the AP reports. http://bit.ly/15dH82a

— Tucked into the NDAA is an order for the Pentagon to present to lawmakers this week a written plan to bring an end to “live tissue training,” which is “military speak for slaying animals to teach combat medics how to treat severed limbs and gunshot wounds,” WaPo’s Ernesto Londoño reports. http://wapo.st/YPYk9T

MAKING MOVES: ANGUS KING HIRES NEW MILITARY LA — Sen. Angus King (I-Maine), a member of SASC, has hired Stephen M. Smith as his legislative assistant for military affairs. Smith served for more than 21 years on active duty and was previously the director for defense policy and strategy for the National Security Council at the White House. He also previously served as a military aide to then-Defense secretary Robert Gates.

STOCKWATCH — Here’s how the top five U.S. defense contractors performed over the last five trading days, compared to the NYSE composite:

DESSERT: HAGEL CAMP RESPONDS TO FASHION MAG — Hagel’s camp defended the former Nebraska senator’s fashion sense after the magazine Women’s Wear Daily gave him a B-minus for fashion and said he could use, among other things, “antipuffiness” cream for the bags under his eyes. “WWD should really be grading on more of a curve — haven’t they seen how most members of Congress dress?” a source familiar with Hagels’ fashion choices tells POLITICO. “It’s like their fashion sense is stuck in the bad suit department from 1995.”

“Sen. Hagel is very stylish and has a particularly nice set of ties and monogrammed shirts,” the source added. “But he’s also practical, reflecting his strong Midwestern roots.”

TRIVIA TIME — Hagel got his start in politics as an administrative assistant in the 1970s to which former Nebraska Republican congressman? Send answers to awright@politico.com for shout-outs in tomorrow’s Morning D.

WANT MORE SEQUESTER WATCH? The specter of sequestration looms, and Jonathan Allen’s “Sequester Watch” delivers Pro readers a daily roundup of all of the twists and turns. To continue getting emails on all things sequester, sign up here http://politico.pro/lvfnLQ by going to “Customize Your Topics” and selecting “Sequester Watch.”

THAT’S ALL FOR US. Have a great Monday.

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